1. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute OBJECTIVES You will understand: 1. The differences between typical male and female language choices and communication styles 2. The power attributed to the different language choices and communication styles 3. The movement towards gender neutral language You will be able to: 1. Integrate the knowledge of gender language differences into your perspective on your profession and on your students’ language learning challenges

2. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute GENDER AND LANGUAGE “You’re driving rather fast, aren’t you?” “Well, I guess it’s approximately four feet high.” Was the speaker of the above sentences a women or a man? How can you tell?

3. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute GENDER AND LANGUAGE “You’re driving rather fast, aren’t you?” “Well, I guess it’s approximately four feet high.” Both of the sentences are more typical of the speech of women than of men. In the first sentence, the speaker uses two linguistic devices in order to minimize the force of her criticism. She uses the ‘hedge word’ rather and she uses the ‘tag question’ aren’t you?. The tag question turns the declaration into a question which allows the hearer to agree or disagree with the comment without the speaker sounding too assertive. In the second sentence, the speaker uses three hedges. Can you identify them? These words show that the speaker is not completely certain about what she is saying. They also show that the speaker anticipates that the hearer will contradict her statement.

4. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Gender is a social construct which assigns women and men roles and cultural values. Social norms serve to reinforce attitudes about what it means to be a woman or a man. Society dictates women and men’s proper roles in all areas of life. From society, we learn how to act at work, how to participate in family life and community life, how to dress and how to communicate appropriately, according to the gender role assigned by that society.

5. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Gender is a social construct which assigns women and men roles and cultural values. Social norms serve to reinforce attitudes about what it means to be a woman or a man. Society dictates women and men’s proper roles in all areas of life. From society, we learn how to act at work, how to participate in family life and community life, how to dress and how to communicate appropriately, according to the gender role assigned by that society. Women and men’s language use varies in terms of their pronunciation, prosodic cues such as intonation, grammatical forms and vocabulary choice. They also employ different conversational styles.

6. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Most English speaking women and men have access to the same array of speech sounds. There are, however, differences in the frequency that women and men use particular sounds. Singing vs. singin’ Fischer completed a study of girls and boy’s usage of the /ŋ/ versus /n/ sounds in New England, U.S.A. He found that out of the twelve boys, 5 preferred /ŋ/ and 7 preferred /n/ and out of the 12 girls, 10 preferred /ŋ/ and only 2 preferred /n/. Fischer’s study shows that /ŋ/ symbolizes female speakers, whereas ‘in’ represents male speakers.

7. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute There is also a correlation between the /ŋ/ form and formal speech situations. The /ŋ/ variant indicates formality as well as female speech. Other studies support this finding. In Norwich, English, Trudgill found that higher class speakers used the standard /ŋ/ whereas lower class speakers used /n/. It is important to note that the differences associated with women’s and men’s language patterns are derivative of society and as a result they are multi-faceted and difficult to examine independently.

8. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Women are generally thought of as using a wide range of dynamic intonation which indicates expression and emotion. Men tend to use a narrow intonational range which is seen as evidence of control and restraint. However, these two qualities are not weighed equally in society. According to Bonvillain, women’s speech is negatively compared against male norms so that women are not deemed expressive and emotional, but unstable and unpredictable.

9. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Women are generally thought of as using a wide range of dynamic intonation which indicates expression and emotion. Men tend to use a narrow intonational range which is seen as evidence of control and restraint. However, these two qualities are not weighed equally in society. According to Bonvillain, women’s speech is negatively compared against male norms so that women are not deemed expressive and emotional, but unstable and unpredictable. McConnell-Ginet, in Bonvillain, suggests that intonational patterns serve social functions - Women’s frequent modifications in pitch and volume may attract and hold a listener’s attention. Women may benefit from this ability more so than men because of their relative powerlessness. Women may also possess this ability because of their frequent contact with young children who do not yet pay attention to all verbal signals.

10. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Studies of women and men’s intonational patterns suggest that women and men use patterns in different ways in some interactions. Some linguists, such as Robin Lakoff, claim that women use a rising pitch at the end of a declarative sentence, instead of a steady lowering pitch which men tend to use, because of uncertainty and lack of assertiveness. Other linguists, including Pamela Fishman, believe that the rising pitch allows speakers to secure responses from hearers because the statement resembles a question.

11. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Women and men’s use of grammar also differs. However, it is difficult to examine the data without being influenced by one’s own underlying cultural models. Much of the relevant data on this topic appears to illustrate stereotypical gender-based styles rather than actual speech. Moreover, gender is not the only factor influencing one’s speech. Keeping these cautions in mind, we address Cheshire’s study of the usage of nonstandard grammatical constructions by adolescent girls and boys in a working class district of Reading, England. The results of this study are below. A score of 100.00 represents the consistent use of the nonstandard form.

12. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Frequency Scores Boys Girls Nonstandard –s 53.16 52.04 Nonstandard has 54.76 51.61 Multiple negation 88.15 73.58 Nonstandard never 46.84 40.00 Nonstandard what 36.36 14.58 Nonstandard do 57.69 78.95 Nonstandard come 100.00 75.33 Ain’t = aux “have” 92.00 64.58 Ain’t = aux “be” 74.19 42.11 Ain’t = copula 85.83 61.18 In this particular community, Cheshire found that boys consistently use nonstandard grammatical forms more often than girls. This finding is not surprising as it is consistent with other studies.

13. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Vocabulary choice varies according to gender. Numerous studies have found that certain types of words are used by women or men more. Women recognize more colour words such as ‘aquamarine’ or ‘magenta’. Women and men are also expected to know the vocabulary associated with their stereotypical areas of expertise: Women are expected to know the vocabulary used for cooking as well as for other domestic skills. Men are expected to know the vocabulary for sports and machinery.

14. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute According to some researchers, profanity also varies according to gender. Men tend to swear more than women and with greater force. Women prefer milder forms of profanity. Both genders use profanity less often when they are engaged in cross-sex interactions. Women use more modifiers (adjectives and adverbs) and intensifiers such as ‘very’, ‘so’, and ‘extremely’. This may be because women are socially permitted to express emotion whereas men are expected to control their emotions. Therefore, they refrain from using vocabulary which marks expression.

15. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Women tend to use hedge words more so than men. These words or expressions indicate that the speaker is uncertain about her statement. They cause the hearer to question the validity of the speaker’s remarks. Hedge words may also reflect social inhibitions. Females are socialized to avoid conflict, so they may choose to state their opinions with hedges in order to minimize the risk of confrontation when speaking to someone who may hold a different view. It is important to note that none of these language patterns are exclusive to either gender, but that we associate different styles with each.

16. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute These associations present a double-bind hypothesis for women. If women follow societal norms and speak using hedges in order to soften their assertions so that they appear polite, they run the risk of seeming indecisive, imprecise and uncertain. The result is that women are not taken seriously or given responsibility. On the other hand, if women choose to use men’s language forms they appear inappropriate or out of line.

17. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Traditionally women are thought of as speaking more than men. Studies show that this is not the case. Men hold the floor more often than women and for longer periods of time than women. It just seems like women speak more than men because they speak more now than they have in the past. Historically, it was uncommon for women to express themselves in public forums and if they did, what they said was not taken seriously.

18. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute It is interesting to note that men’s language forms are increasingly being used by women; parallel to the fact that more women are seeking men’s jobs. In contrast, very few men are signing up to be housewives or secretaries. The language of the powerful group is adopted by the powerless group, not vice versa. Margaret Thatcher illustrates this phenomenon. She was told that her voice did not match her position of authority as British Prime Minister. She was told that she should lower the pitch of her voice, lessen its range, and speak more slowly. These changes made her seem more authoritative and allowed her to be heard.

19. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Although women and men speak the same languages, what they say, why they say it, and how they say it differs. Deborah Tannen suggests that women and men speak differently because they view the world differently. Tannen explains that men see themselves as members of a hierarchical social order in which they are either one-up or one-down. Men see others as adversaries and each conversation is a negotiation to achieve and maintain the upper hand. Men see life as a “contest where they struggle to preserve independence and avoid failure” (p. 24).

20. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Women on the other hand, see themselves as an individual in a network of connections. Conversations are for negotiating closeness and for giving and receiving confirmation and support. Women see life as a community where members work to “preserve intimacy and avoid isolation” (Tannen, p. 24-25). Women create hierarchies too, but they are hierarchies of friendships, not of power.

21. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Because women and men use language differently, miscommunications result from cross-sex interactions. Women and men apply their own rules to what members of the opposite sex say. A woman may judge what a man says based on what she would mean if it were her own comment. For example, when a woman says ‘umhm’ she means I am listening. When a man says ‘umhm’ he means I agree. So, when a woman is speaking and her partner is not responding, she may wonder why he is not listening. He is in fact listening, but he does not agree with her. The opposite may also occur. When a man is speaking and his partner says ‘umhm’, he thinks she is agreeing with him when she may not be. She simply wishes to show him that she is listening.

22. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute IMPLICATIONS FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS As language teachers, we must be conscious of our gender and how our gender may affect our language, which acts as an example to all our students, both the men and the women. We may need to comment that women would be more likely to say this, and less likely to say this for example. Once students have this information, the choice is theirs to make.

23. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute The same is true for body language. Body language is a cultural phenomenon and must be learned with the language. Body language is also gender specific. Students may pick up their gestures from their teacher; however, they may pick up inappropriate body language if they are of the opposite gender to the teacher. Teachers can invite members of the opposite sex into the class for demonstration purposes or bring in T.V. programs to illustrate the differences in body language in terms of gender. It is also important to note that different cultures have different attitudes towards men and women. As teachers, we need to be aware of these differences and teach our students about the customs and expectations in Canada. When teaching abroad, it is usually good practice to adapt to the customs of your host country as best as you can.

24. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute GENDER NEUTRAL LANGUAGE Many aspects of the English language have been criticized for being sexist, especially the lexicon. There has been a move toward gender neutral language. For instance, not too long ago the words policeman, chairman, and businessman were commonly used to describe job titles. Now these terms are less acceptable and alternatives have been suggested or in some cases demanded. Other changes include craftsman>artisan, to man>to operate, manpower>workforce and many more.

25. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute GENDER NEUTRAL LANGUAGE Moreover, certain jobs were typically associated with certain genders. If someone possessed a job and was of the marked (not expected or not usual) gender, we would mention it. For example, we might have said male nurse instead of just nurse. English grammar also contained, and continues to do so, some sexist attributes. For example, we might say someone left his backpack in the classroom. The alternative would be, someone left their backpack in the classroom. Many linguists resist this change because they feel it is grammatically incorrect. In either case, there is an error. The argument is that both errors are equal, so why should we be gender exclusive?

26. ACE TESOL Diploma Program – London Language Institute Complete either Question 1 or 2 in your Task Journal. Task Journals can be submitted via email to paula@llinstitute.com (preferred) or printed and handed in. paula@llinstitute.com